GRTU boss keeps his post despite perjury charge

A confidential email sent to the GRTU’s council members and published today by MaltaToday reveals the Chamber of SMEs’ plan to issue a diversionary statement, coinciding with a criminal hearing against the GRTU president Paul Abela and vice-president Philip Fenech, who are expected to be charged with perjury on Monday.

The proceedings relate to evidence which the two officials had tendered in the case against former GRTU member Sandro Chetcuti.

Reliable sources informed MaltaToday that Abela and Fenech are to be charged – by summons and not under arrest – in the coming days.

The statement, which is intended to support the union’s two leaders – who would have been forced to resign had it not been for a recent change in the union’s statute – reads:

“After the GRTU President Mr. Paul Abela and Vice-President Mr. Philip Fenech, were arraigned in court today on charges connected to the violence committed in its offices by Sandro Chetcuti, who has been found guilty and given a suspended sentence, the Executive Council of the GRTU unanimously declares the following:

“The President and Vice President will keep their posts and will continue to work to defend the interests of the self-employed and Maltese SMEs.

“The Union will never tolerate individuals who act aggressively or violently towards its employees or officials. The GRTU will not be intimidated by aggressive and violent persons and will continue in its efforts to improve the environment that Maltese businesses work in...”

Asked by MaltaToday to comment on the fact that the statement made no mention of the perjury charges faced by the two with respect to this incident, Paul Abela was evasive and said that the issue would be addressed in a future press release.

When it was pointed out that his decision not to take responsibility and step down could be viewed as irreconcilable with his position in an organisation calling for good governance, he was also silent.

Several calls to Philip Fenech went unanswered.

MaltaToday had revealed that GRTU president Paul Abela could face perjury charges for lying under oath when he said he witnessed former director-general Vince Farrugia being assaulted by Sandro Chetcuti.

For a time, Abela’s future as GRTU president stood in the balance, as the statute stipulated that any council member facing criminal proceedings would automatically have to resign. However, the provision has since changed to state that a member need only resign if found guilty of a criminal offence.

From ‘attempted murder’… to perjury charges

Chetcuti, today president of the Malta Developers’ Association had originally been charged with attempted murder after a brawl with Vince Farrugia inside his GRTU office in 2010.

Chetcuti had gone to speak to Farrugia after an SMS which Chetcuti had intended for the then leader of the Opposition, Joseph Muscat, was sent to the GRTU director general by mistake. The argument disintegrated into a brawl, in which Farrugia was injured. 

The charges were later downgraded to grievous bodily harm and Chetcuti was eventually found guilty of slightly injuring Farrugia.

But doubts had began to emerge about Farrugia’s account after a number of SMSs, sent by Farrugia to witnesses, were downloaded from his mobile phone and exhibited during the compilation of evidence against Chetcuti. The messages confirmed that Farrugia had attempted to suborn witnesses into testifying that Chetcuti wanted to kill him, pressuring them to give false evidence and paint a misleading picture of how events had developed.

Eventually one witness recanted in court, revealing that the testimony of other key witnesses, including Paul Abela and Philip Fenech, were untrue. 

In his decision on a police challenge filed by Chetcuti, Magistrate Aaron Bugeja had observed that many witnesses had effectively been coached to give false testimony and that in spite of this, former Commissioner of Police Peter Paul Zammit had been advised “by the Attorney General and his superiors” not to prosecute Farrugia for perjury.

In one SMS exhibited in court, Abela had told an employee “All you have to do on Wednesday… is to say loud and clear, that if your colleagues were not there he would have killed me. I’m in no doubt he would have stopped only after he battered me. You should keep a beast in prison [Bestja trid tħalliha Kordin]”.

Philip Fenech had testified to hearing shouting at the GRTU offices on the day, but witnesses had testified that Fenech was not even in the GRTU offices. The court had seen an incriminating SMS sent by Philip Fenech to Vince Farrugia, crowing that the former Commissioner of Police was “on our side” and that he was playing “home”.